After laying empty or underutilised for over 50 years, there appears to be a solution finally in hand for old Royal High School building, located on Calton Hill in the city of Edinburgh.

Originally founded in 1128, the school has been in numerous locations since then. In 1829 in moved to a specially built neo-classic building, where the school stayed until 1968.

According to the Edinburgh Reporter, since then numerous ideas were kicked around to use the magnificent building, including the home of Scotland’s parliament. In 2015, The City of Edinburgh Council, which owns the building, initiated a project to lease the building for a luxury hotel.  

Duddingston House Properties and Urbanist Hotels were looking at spending £75 million in converting the building to a 127-room hotel. However, the deal fell through after building plans were rejected several times.

Now it looks like the site will be used for the National Centre for Music. Backed by a gift of £55 million from arts philanthropist Carol Colburn Grigor and her Dunard Fund, it will feature the music school, along with a café, gallery and visitor centre.

David Narro Associates are the civil engineers for the project, with Richard Murphy Architects and Simpson and Brown conservation architects.

However, the final deal has not yet been signed and with numerous other deals having fallen by the wayside over the half-century, there is no guarantee this will happen.